THE STATE OF 3-D TECHNOLOGY AND EVALUATION

In recent years the application of 3-D video endoscopic systems in cli nical use especially in the field of laparoscopic surgery has increase d steadily. Compared to the number of established traditional 2-D vide o endoscopic systems, the number of 3-D video endoscopic systems used in the operating theatre today is obviously lower. This slow applicati on can be mainly explained by the lack of evaluation of these new tech nologies concerning their influence on the surgical procedure and on p atient benefit as well as by the need for specific economic analysis. The starting point for our investigations was to analyse the influence of 3-D video endoscopy on endoscopically guided manipulations in gene ral. In order to achieve quantitative statements we performed laborato ry experiments using human factor analysing methods. In the next step we performed clinical field studies of the application of 3-D video en doscopic systems for a side-by-side comparison of 2-D and 3-D systems. These studies showed that the use of 3-D video endoscopy has an impro ving influence on endoscopically guided surgical manipulations as well as on the intraoperative procedures. We also found that spatial visua l perception of stereoscopic images of 3-D video systems may cause pro blems for some users. For the validation of stereoscopic visualization systems, we additionally studied the influence of isolated technical, optical and physiological parameters on visual perception as well as on the transposition into visually guided manipulations. Detailed resu lts of these investigations concerning the influence of 3-D video endo scopy on binocular perception are presented.